I live in, and share music because it is a personal, communal, therapeutic, powerful, and inspiring medium that pervades human existence, and allows us to communicate ideas, emotions, and stories, some with no words available to communicate them, from one person to another. It is fun. It is painful. It can bring two people together or tear them apart. Music is learned in any context, from anyone or anything, through performing, discussing, reflecting, practicing, creating, and engaging with any aspect of it from any possible angle, be it cultural, stylistic, or personal. This fluid and lifelong process is best led by learners and their interests: what they listen to, how they listen to it, what culture they come from, and why they love what they love.

​A teacher’s job in this journey is to create a situation in which learners feel comfortable with themselves, so that they may have the confidence to lead the way, and to share their passion. Past this, a teacher tailors this situation to each class’s interests, making it just as personal for the other learners as it is for the teacher.

Teaching is impossible without learning, and as such, a teacher is not closed to new ideas and practices. Through this style of teaching, a teacher can know that students love music when they are taking it with them out of the classroom passionately, and without prompting. Learners, in an ideal learning situation, will leave the classroom with a sense of confidence in who they are in that moment, holistically, as a human on this Earth, knowing and accepting that this may change at any moment.